Combustion effluents of fossil fuels, such as coal, petroleum (including diesel oil, kerosene, jet fuel, and gasoline), and even natural gas, contain, in addition to customary carbon dioxide and water, undesirable hydrocarbon fragments and derivatives, often in particulate form, carbon monoxide, and gaseous oxides of nitrogen and/or of sulfur transformable to noxious droplet form (acid rain).
Hydrogen was long-considered an ideal fuel because convertible completely to water via air combustion. See century-old Eldridge U.S. Pat. No. 603,058 for an Electrical Retort wherein an air arc flashed water to steam then pyrolyzed it and electrode carbon. Yet hydrogen is unsatisfactory as fuel for an internal-combustion engine because it heats the intake valves--ahead of the combustion chamber--and causes pre-ignition flashback, which is deleterious to the engine operation and structure, and is conducive to emission of harmful nitrogen oxides (aptly: "NOx") into the atmosphere. An instructive reference is HYDROGEN STORAGE AND UTILIZATION IN TRANSPORTATION VEHICLES--SUMMARY, United States Department of Energy, Alternative Fuels Utilization Program, Office of Transportation Systems (1988).
Many places are polluted by emissions from combustion of fossil fuels by motor vehicles, lawnmowers, heating systems, manufacturing plants, or electricity generation, despite many laws and safeguards. My invention is the first and (so far) only solution to the problem.